Estamos Aqui!!!

We've arrived!!!! Finally!! Thanks to our first flight being cancelled at the last minute (at 2 am!), we ended up spending the night in Los Angeles (paid for by the airline, thankfully :) Then - along with everyone else on the plane - we missing our connecting flight out of Panama and spent the next night at a hotel in Panama (also paid for by the airline). By this point our group was bonding, and we had some really nice conversations with a young couple going to Ecuador to teach the children of missionaries, and another young couple originally from Colombia with a very sweet baby.

The high point in the trip was the half hour bus ride from the airport in Panama City to the hotel, along with a bunch of other people from our flight. We suddenly realized that WE WERE IN ANOTHER COUNTRY :) :) and had a fabulous time (along with the missionary couple). Christopher and Elli had their heads out the window like happy puppies :D















The next day was long, stuck in the hotel waiting for our evening flight - we didn't find out until just before we left that Panama uses US money(!) so we could have had lunch and maybe even done something... But we did have a lovely rooftop pool and view, so we passed the day pleasantly enough.




I think the entrance of the Panama Canal is off in the distance somewhere - there were a ton of boats heading that way.


Ahhh....a lovely green field...Oh wait...






















That afternoon, we managed to get to the airport even though the airline forgot to pick us up like they promised to :-P and we had to hire cabs. I was glad, though, because the taxi driver, Freddie, was great, and we talked away for twenty minutes or so - IN SPANISH!!! :). I was shocked and delighted to discover I could actually have a conversation in Spanish - I had no idea my brain had retained so much!!! So I'm feeling a lot less timid about communicating now, which is very good.

We finally arrived in Uruguay this morning around 4 am, and were greeted by some friends of friends who hustled us and our many bags off to the home of our friends to get some badly needed sleep.

Speaking of which, I need to go to bed soon...So maybe I'll save my first impressions of Uruguay for a post tomorrow...

Coming up...Mullets and Staring... :D